pen, paper, ink, and the imagination

Main menu

Post navigation

chasing Calliope

Interesting what the mind absorbs, what will stick deep in the wrinkles, without my being aware of the impact, until sleep. In the midst of last night’s dream muddle, I looked up from whatever I was doing and the sky was burning, “blackening like paper in a fire.” That line appears on page 37 of Mary Gentle’s “Rats and Gargoyles.” The image pierced the mundane layers of the conscious, planted itself, grew roots, in my subconscious, and became real in dream.

Today was complete immersion in the writing. Outside was brilliantly sunny, hot. I spent this morning working on the first of today’s projects: the secret project. Took a break, parked at the beach and munched on a catfish lunch from the local Popeye’s. Sea waves sparkling and rippling in the sunshine, fish leaping, lithe flashes, all sunlight and silver, risking the swoop of seagulls on the wing. Cold wind off the sea carried a dank muddy scent.

After lunch, The Key to Chaos, a bit of work on the Aloli-Lazaretia scene, and on the Emeryk-Jeru scene, and then a bit of brainstorming, working up more story. The manuscript has reached 7,629 words, and I’ve become better acquainted with Lazaretia Tataneia, who did not start her life with that name and whose parents sold her to the Temple of the Triple Goddess. As the youngest and last born of fifteen children, and the only one who was not born a twin or a triplet, her parents decided she’d be better off and better cared for in the care of the Daughters of An-Kara.

It’s after eight now. The day has faded to dusk; the air has grown cooler, and I can leave the desk satisfied at having had a good and productive day.